I am tired, but it is a good tired. Today, my friends Sangwon and Diane took me all over Seoul. It was so much fun. We started with the Imperial Palace in Downtown. We took the subway, about an hour's ride and one line change. The palace was built for the last Korean dynasty which only ended when Korea was overrun by the Japanese in the early part of the 20th Century. Most of the palace was destroyed by the Japanese, so the palace is actually a reconstruction, but it is a striking place. I got a little too intrigued with the traditional...

Arrived in Seoul as planned. OK, can we talk? I mean, everyone in the whole stinking world? When you get off the plane and haven't been able to use your cell phone, I get that you want to catch up with your texts, calls, Twitter feed, Snap Chats, Facebook messages, voice messages, Instagram pictures, and whatever else you have loaded on your phone. By all means, find a seat in the airport and catch up. Your bag will wait. Whoever is picking you up will wait. You have time to make your connection. Grab a latte and catch up with all of your...

So, I've finished a cruise on the Baltic Sea with stops in Sweden, Russia, Estonia, and Finland. I've roamed Denmark by car. I've spent several days with my much loved friends Joel and Sarah Sjovell in Sweden. I've roamed the wats of Bangkok with Tyler Hoyt. We saw the Angkor Wat, a site I've wanted to see for years. I took in the Killing Fields iin Phnom Penh and traveled to Ho Chi Minh City for my first stop in Vietnam. I visited Tagaytay once more with Raymond and some of his youth ministry leaders. Tyler seemed to enjoy seeing the Taal...

A quick bus ride south to the port of Busan, Korea's second largest city but nothing that interests me. The flight south from Busan to Jeju Island is a bit eerie. The plane is an Air Korea Airbus 330-300. There are less than 50 of us aboard.
The MERS situation continues to impact tourism here. This is actually working out well for me. Jeju Island is a World Heritage Site and was voted one of the Seven Wonders of Nature just a few years ago. This tends to attract tourists. Jeju is also a magnet for honeymooners. I knew this when I scheduled...

I leave Seoul for a less modern Korea. An express bus whisks me 400 kilometers south and east to Gyeong-ju, capital of an unified Korea for a thousand years until Genghis Khan ... you know the rest.
The bus is inexpensive and luxurious. The wide screen tv features a show on Korean antiques. The bus has noticeably few passengers. MERS has spooked the tourism industry as well as the locals. Taiwan has cancelled flights, two hospitals have closed, over a thousand schools have suspended classes.
In Gyeong-ju I visit three World heritage sites...

Yes. I suppose you're not surprised that I'm on the road again and traveling to a part of the world currently facing a health crisis. What was I thinking?
The reality is that, despite scary news alerts, the MERS epidemic isn't very widespread and the likelihood of being infected is minimal. However, it has served to keep a lot of people off the streets here. Most of the rest of us just go about as normal. Which means that about 15-20% of us are wearing masks.
Seoul is a modern city of more than 10 million. Korea is the world's 13th largest...

Pete's contract ended up in Seoul this time, although this was not a turnaround day for the ship. Strict rules for China make it against the law for an American to sign off the ship in a Chinese port and, since the Voyager's next port was Tianjin, China, any of the Americans who were leaving had to leave now. There were some complications in the immigration operation and the Port Officer ended up driving the 9 people who were signing off the ship to a Ferry Boat landing which had immigration services. Once their paperwork was processed,...

Pete was glad to be back in Jeju today. Last year, the ship visited Jeju regularly but this was the only stop there this season. Pete was able to leave the ship and visit a cafe where he enjoyed the free wifi! We talked to Pete about a YouTube video that Andy found on the internet which showed Pete directing the orchestra in performance with one of their regular headliner acts, Andy Joy, who is a multi-instrumentalist performer. We feel like stalkers when we look at other people's YouTube videos, trying to catch a glimpse of Pete, but we...

Barb and I are in the midst of the long way home. We had a rather unpleasant leg from Ho Chi Minh City to Incheon, Korea; left at midnight, got in at 6 am. A long layover of 12 hours in Incheon seemed daunting, so we sprang for an in-airport hotel for 12 hours; and laying down and actually sleeping seemed like heaven!!! We now feel human again, showered and rested, and are getting ready to check out the airport offerings prior to our 6 pm flight back to Seattle. Through the miracle of chronological timekeeping forces, we will arrive in...

I revived an old habit of trying to go somewhere new each year for the New Year and when BA released a very good offer in November I chose a trip to Seoul. I hadn't originally figured on just how cold it was going to be be but thoroughly enjoyed the trip. I didn't manage to find a firework display to herald in the New Year but figure that it might have been a bit chilly at midnight outside anyway.
I really wanted to get a bike ride in and had researched that the city does have a cycle hire scheme and a good cycle path along the river. I...

Sat. 13 Dec.2014 Weather:-2 Degrees/Snow
Seoul 17:25 Layover 2:10h Seoul 19:35 Flight Time to Brisbane 9:45h
As we descended into Seoul we could see that a lot of it was blanketed with snow with bands of it still laying on the sides of the runways. In the airport I have had to take my jumper of again as the inside temperature via the air-conditioning must be about 19 degrees. We only have 30 min to wait before boarding then we are on our last leg to HOME—I took a sleeping pill on the first leg courtesy of the Ship’s Doctor so “I remember...

THE WEDDING
Tia and Devon were to be picked up at 6:50 for hair and makeup. Tia was totally primped and pampered, fussed over by many people, I quote “I feel like a country bumpkin. This is the fanciest salon I have ever seen. Even on TV. In a spectacular area. I think they have called my hair crazy” and “It is relaxing. I have it washed, blown dried, hot rollers, and now a blow out and hand curl. I think I might fall asleep.”
She looked amazing.
We were among the first guests to arrive at the venue. We took turns visiting Kelly in the...